{ Monthly Archives } February 2010

I didn’t expect to be writing this from my hospital bed[1. Last time I was here, the man in the next bed had a 3G dongle that he was using to get online. I was astonished at how cheap it was to get mobile Internet, but it’s well within my budget, so here I am.] […]

By Gillian Chris was meant to go into hospital yesterday for an overnight stay to have his third round of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, there is an outbreak of Norovirus at Cheltenham General hospital, and apparently some wards are closed. The upshot is that there wasn’t a bed for him yesterday. We phoned again this morning, and […]

Since it was founded four and a half years ago, LibriVox has run on donations of hardware and time. We have literally no money and no income. In that time we have produced well over 3,000 audio books, and placed them all into the public domain. Our book production rate is growing constantly and we […]

Recently I’ve noticed that my scalp has been slightly tender to the touch. At the clinic yesterday it was confirmed that I would probably soon begin to lose my hair, and indeed this morning in the shower I was pulling it out in clumps while washing it. Time for it to go. I asked Gillian […]

Not much news to report from today’s visit to see the oncologist, mostly because everything is going so well. We did discuss the Herceptin treatment possibility, though, which seemed to have excited him somewhat more than I have come to expect from his usual laid back self. First, the sample has been sent for testing. […]

Would you believe it, I’ve actually found an even better arm protector to use in the shower. The protector I was using before covered my hand, which was a trifle awkward for washing certain parts of my body. I had spent quite a while searching online, so I thought I had done as well as […]

Since the last status report most of the things I reported as a downside have improved, which is pleasing. The biggest problem was that I was being sick most mornings, and things got much worse on Monday morning. I was prescribed Cyclizine instead of Metoclopramide, which helped a little, and then on Wednesday at my […]

Yesterday the snow came again. I phoned Gillian at work to make sure she knew how heavy the snowfall was on top of the hill, as it is often worse up here than down in the valley where she works. She drove home straight away, but still didn’t manage to make it all the way […]

An interesting day at the clinic today. We had come across an article on the Cancer Research UK site that indicated that Herceptin could be a viable treatment for my type of cancer, so I brought up the subject with the oncologist. It turns out that it isn’t straightforward, it might not be appropriate, and […]

When I was working it was a standing joke that our main customer always wanted things faster, better, and cheaper. The joke, of course, is that it’s almost always impossible to improve all three dimensions at the same time. But today I think I’ve actually done it. I’ve found a better way to deal with […]